New Delhi: The BJP on Friday released its first list of 70 candidates, including chief minister Vijaybhai Rupani and five Congress ex-MLAs and rebels, for the coming Assembly elections in Gujarat where 182 constituencies will go to polls next month.
The list includes 45 candidates whose constituency will go to polls in the first phase on December 9. Voting in the seats of 25 others will be held on December 14 in the second phase. The results will be declared on December 18.
Among the prominent names that were announced included Mr Rupani who has been renominated from Rajkot West, his deputy Nitin Patel from Mehsana, party president Jitubhai Vaghani from Bhavnagar West and former superintendent of police (SP) P. C. Baranda, who had resigned from IPS just two days back, from Bhiloda. Fifteen ministers from Mr Rupani’s Cabinet have been named from their respective seats.
The BJP has also fielded five former Congress legislators and rebels, who had joined the saffron fold recently. These include — Raghavji Patel, a loyalist of former Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela, from Jamnahgar Rural; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja from Jamnagar North; Ramsinh Parmar, chairman of Amul Dairy, from Thasra; Mansinh Chauhan from Balasinor and C.K. Raolji from Godhra.
In all, the BJP has renominated 49 candidates and fielded 16 new faces. Only two sitting MLAs — Varsha Doshi from Wadhwan and Bhavna Makwana from Mahuva — have not been given tickets in the first list. There are four women in the 70-member first list. Of these, 17 are Patels, 18 OBCs, three SCs and 11 STs. A majority of OBC candidates are Thakores followed by Kolis.
The names were finalised by BJP’s Central Election Committee, which met on Wednesday and was chaired by party president Amit Shah. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Mr Rupani.
